Archive for January, 2010
How to choose tracks for an album - part 2
By David Fritz (Mr Music)
David Fritz, Mr Music, is a Composer, arranger, producer
and performer of smooth/cool/romantic/healing new age piano
music. Visit his site, join his mailing list and receive
free newsletters, MP3’s, albums and more, and so get to
know him and his music:
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Monday, 25 January 2010
In the previous article in this series I mentioned the first prerequisite to choosing tracks for an album: having a central theme for the album.
I then mentioned that you can choose to have a broad theme, e.g. love (in general), or a more specific theme, e.g. love (love for a mother).
Today I want to look at the second prerequisite for choosing tracks on an album: variety.
“Variety is the spice of life.”
This is a very important point. People quickly become bored.
During the forty-five to seventy minute runtime of a typical album you have to present frequent tempo, volume and tone changes to rekindle the listener’s interest.
Think of a painting. If the canvas was just one mass of blue, do you actually have a painting? No, you’ve just coloured the entire canvas blue; that’s not painting!
A painter uses several colours to depict objects and it’s the contrast of the colours and objects which actually makes the painting.
It is not enough to have a central theme for your album and a selection of tracks that fall into the theme of the album: the tracks have to vary in tempo, tone and volume too!
However, don’t go overboard with this, else you will still end up with an unsatisfactory product.
Again think of good paintings: sometimes the colour variations are very subtle. Similarly, the variations need to be within limits to present a uniformity, else you just have a selection of tracks recorded together, not really an album!
With other words, be careful in creating variety because with variety you may actually blow your theme to bits.
Next time I will go deeper into the subject of variety.
Love and the best music
David
Mr Music
Music with impact …
http://www.mr-music.co.za/blog
How to choose tracks for an album
How to choose tracks for an album
(Part 1)
By David Fritz (Mr Music)
David Fritz, Mr Music, is a Composer, arranger, producer
and performer of smooth/cool/romantic/healing new age piano
music. Visit his site, join his mailing list and receive
free newsletters, MP3’s, albums and more, and so get to
know him and his music:
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Monday, 18 January 2010
One of the first, and most important steps,
Once you have decided to record an album, is to decide
which numbers to include on it.
The first point to keep in mind is that an album MUST have
a theme. The theme is what
ties the individual numbers together as one coherent whole.
The album is the end product, and the individual tracks
are the elements of which the bigger picture is comprised.
Although each track can stand on its own, the album is an
entity by itself that is made up of the contributing tracks.
So, you need an overall theme for the album; you have to
consider the whole, the album, not just each track as an
individual item.
The theme may be something like “the sixties”; a specific
era, or from a specific region, e.g. “songs from India”.
Once you know what the theme for the album is you can
start selecting tracks that fit the theme.
For example, I am going to record Ivories in Love volume 3
shortly.
“Love” is the theme, so I will record tracks that fit in
with the theme of “love”.
Here is a list of the tracks I have chosen for the album:
01 Love you to want me
02 The air that I breathe
03 Can’t live, if living is without you
04 Ballad for Adlene
05 Loving arms
06 jetem
07 This time tomorrow (Louise)
08 Theme from “Voices”
09 The apple of my eye
10 Do you want to make love
11 He aint heavy
12 Your song
13 You’ve got a friend
14 All my love.
You can narrow down the theme of love even further, e.g.
love for a mother, as you might find on an album for
Mothers’ day.
In this case, my theme is “love” generally, but leaning
slightly towards the love between a man and a woman.
You need to know your theme to be able to select numbers,
or reject them.
There are so many numbers to choose from, but you can only
fit so many on an album. You need to have a mechanism for
acceptance or rejection.
Next week I will delve deeper into this subject.
Love and the best music
David
Mr Music
Music with impact …
Goodbye 2009, hello 2010
Goodbye 2009, hello 2010
By David Fritz (Mr Music)
Composer, arranger, producer and performer of smooth/cool/romantic/healing piano music
http://www.mr-music.co.za
Monday, 11 January 2010
Good day friends,
A very happy 2010 to you all. May this year bring
the fulfilling of all outstanding wishes and desires!
I started this blog back in December 2008, and
had planned on writing daily, can you believe!
Sorry, but that was an over-ambitious plan, considering all
the other things I undertook last year.
Now I’m older and wiser, and good sense
guides me to undertake to write an article weekly!
What’s all this other stuff that’s keeping me so busy?
Well, here’s a little peep back, and forward.
Last year I:
- composed 35 pieces,
- - arranged, played and self-recorded 3 full albums,
containing 28 of the 35 compositions,
- arranged, played and self-recorded a special-edition
Mothers’ day CD containing another 1 of my 35
compositions for the year.
That’s a full workload by itself.
But I also published 48 full-length weekly newsletters,
containing many self-written articles, over 120 MP3 samples
of music, and much more.
Oh yes, and don’t forget all the live performances!
What’s on the cards for this year?
COMPOSING
Composing, for sure, because I plan to release
at least 2 albums this year with own compositions,
so I need to come up with at least 24 compositions there.
But I also give away one full-length MP3 to my newsletter
subscribers a month, so I need to come up with
at least another 10 there, with other words, I would
have to compose about 35 pieces again this year!
ALBUMS
I plan to release at least 3 albums this year:
On Sunday 9 May, Mothers day, I plan
to release Ivories in Love volume 3.
These albums contain mainly love songs, normally 14
tracks per album, and I mostly record well-known pieces by other artists.
On Monday 9 August, I plan to release
Soothing Ivories volume 3.
This is meditation-style soothing, healing music,
all own compositions, recorded over a backdrop of nature sounds.
On Sunday 14 November I plan to release
D.Beat volume 2.
These albums are up-tempo, melodious piano music,
with full backing; all own compositions.
LIVE PERFORMANCES
What use is a lit candle, hid under a bucket?
So I plan to get out there, even more than before,
performing my own music and that of others!
I aim to have an average of 3 performances per week.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Don’t think you knew, but now you do, that I do
performances at old age homes and other such institutions,
without charge, as my way of giving back and saying thank you
for all I have and am.
I have been averaging about one such performance per month,
but would like to double that to about 2 per month.
NEWSLETTERS
Then there’s my weekly newsletter, which
all things being equal, there’ll be about 50 issues this year.
That’s another labour of love, very dear to my heart.
I would like to encourage you to sign up for my free newsletter.
It’s packed with value.
Apart from the weekly issue containing articles,
something to snigger about, lyrics, samples of music and
more, my subscribers also receive, free, every month:
- 1 full-length MP3 recording of an own composition,
- 1 e-book,
- 1 ring tone and
- 1 recipe.
Please sign up at:
http://www.mr-music.co.za/joinsilist.php
INVITATION
Friends, I want this blog to become a hangout place for
people who love smooth/cool/romantic/healing piano music.
I want to hear from you.
I know that all thingies in the blogging software
are not set correctly yet, so you may have problems
commenting.
Please don’t let this dissuade you. I am working on it,
but in the meantime, please just send your comments
directly to me at:
david@mr-music.co.za
We can at least start chatting this way, and I
can mention your comments in my blogs until you can
participate fully.
Looking forward to your support and contributions!
Love and the best music
David
Mr Music
Music with impact …
http://www.mr-music.co.za